Special warfare and special forces operators, as well as paratroopers and other military personnel, sometimes deploy by parachuting into an operational area. Law enforcement and other personnel may also deploy in this manner. When parachuting into an operational area, the parachutist typically carries weapons and other equipment. It is often desirable for the parachutist to contain weapons and equipment in some manner so as to ensure that needed weapons, ammunition and other equipment will not be lost during the jump, to prevent damage to weapons, and for other reasons.
Modern military and law enforcement personnel may use any of a large variety of weapons. The lengths and weights of those weapons can vary significantly. For example, an M4 carbine with a single magazine may weigh approximately 7.5 pounds and have a length of approximately 31 inches when its butt stock is collapsed. An M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) equipped with a standard butt stock weighs approximately 17 pounds (not including ammunition) and has a length of 41 inches. Numerous other weapons having various other lengths and dimensions are routinely used by military personnel. In addition to a weapon (or multiple weapons), a parachutist may also wish to carry extra ammunition and any of numerous other types of equipment. Examples of such equipment include bipods, tripods, weapon sighting devices, extra machine gun barrels, breaching tools, “hooligan” tools, etc.
As can be appreciated from the above description, any individual operator may potentially carry a combined weapon, ammo and equipment load that could be of substantially different length and weight relative to a load carried by another operator. Manufacturing a different type of weapon/equipment container for numerous weapon/equipment combinations would be impractical and could cause logistic problems. However, simply making one container large enough to carry the longest and heaviest combination of weapons and equipment is an incomplete solution. It is desirable for a weapons container to fit its contents relatively tightly so as to prevent articles in the case from banging against one another. It is similarly desirable to avoid use of a container that is excessively baggy and has large loose portions that can snag or otherwise interfere with a parachute drop.
One type of known weapon container used by military personnel during parachute jumps is the M-1950 parachutist's individual weapons case (as described by military specification MIL-C-10922G, dated 20 Feb. 1985). The M-1950 has been used for many years and predates many of the weapons used by modern military personnel. Although the M-1950 is somewhat adjustable, it suffers from various disadvantages when used with modern day weapons. For these and other reasons, there remains a need for improved containers that can be used by military and/or other personnel when deploying by parachute into a tactical environment.